Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Venice
- Palazzo Fortuny – Winter at Palazzo Fortuny. Four Women, four incredible
personalities and four great exhibitions are on show - until March 13 - Winter
at Palazzo Fortuny; Henrietta Fortuny, Romaine Brooks, Sarah Moon and Ida
Barbarigo.

Palazzo
Fortuny – Winter at Palazzo Fortuny – Henriette Fortuny.The exhibition pays tribute to a woman who, by her
intelligence and sensitivity, succeeded in supporting and inspiring one of the
most refined artists of the past century. At the beginning of the 20th Century in Paris, French
born Henriette met Mariano Fortuny, analready a well-known artist,
involved in experimenting with a complex system of lighting that from its early
application would revolutionize stage lighting in the theater. And, for no less
than 47 years, Henriette would be at Fortuny’s side, contributing in a decisive
manner to the success of his splendid textile creations.

Winter
at Palazzo Fortuny – Henriette Fortuny.Henriette
was, for instance, responsible for the idea of the Delphos, the fine plisse
silk gown that became a worldwide icon of style and the symbol of a timeless
elegance.

Co-Curators of the exhibition. Cristina Da Roit and
Daniela Ferretti, who is also the director of the Museum of Palazzo Fortuny.The exhibition is the result of the research,
re-ordering and maintenance undertaken during the course of 2015 in the
collections of Museo Fortuny.

Winter
at Palazzo Fortuny – Henriette Fortuny.In
the house and workshop of Palazzo Pesaro degli Orfei, Henriette worked
alongside her husband in the creation of fine printed fabrics and silk
lampshades, coordinating the work of the craftsmen they employed. It was she
who maintained the delicate relations with an increasingly numerous and
international clientele, leaving Fortuny to dedicate himself to his studies,
research and experiments in various artistic disciplines.

Delphos dress with over garment in printed silk organza

Collezioni
di Museo Fortuny - inv. C016 e C29

Henriette
and Mariano Fortuny

Henriette,
photographed by Mariano in her work clothes and Mariano Fortuny, photographed
by Henriette in his work shirt both in Venice, Palazzo Pesaro Orfei c.1920

Winter
at Palazzo Fortuny – Henriette Fortuny

Fortuny
block print on silk velvet fabric c. 1920

Mariano
Fortuny’s Travel Photographs - Egypt 1938

Courtesy
Palazzo Fortuny

Mariano
Fortuny- Henriette

Photographed
in the garden of their home in Paris, Boulevard Berthier 1903-04

Winter
at Palazzo Fortuny – Sarah Moon – A Tribute to Mariano Fortuny.The highly personal and visionary style
of Sarah Moon, the intensity of her gaze and the poetry of her photographs
could find no more enchanting and empathetic space in which to be displayed
than Palazzo Fortuny. The soft lights of the lagoon in winter that penetrate
through the large windows, the folds, the swirls and reflections created by the
fabrics and drapes of the clothes designed by Mariano Fortuny, are a source of
inspiration for this new exhibition, curated by Alexandra de Leal and Adele Re
Rebaudengo, which the great photographer has built up over the years during her
frequent visits to the house/workshop of Palazzo Pesaro degli Orfei.

Winter
at Palazzo Fortuny – Sarah Moon – A Tribute to Mariano Fortuny. Sarah Moon is one of the major photographers
of contemporary fashion, and the first woman in 1972 to take photos for the
Pirelli calendar, the French artist has for many years expanded the horizons of
her focus, with a particular interest in three themes: the evanescence of
beauty, uncertainty and the passage of time.

Winter
at Palazzo Fortuny

Sarah
Moon – A Tribute to Mariano Fortuny

Winter
at Palazzo Fortuny - Sarah Moon – A Tribute to Mariano Fortuny. The inkjet and
silver salts prints tell fragments of an inner story, which takes shape in the
shadows created by the movement of the fabrics recalling the softness of the
pleats of the Delphos, the iconic dress made by Fortuny, and in the lines –
blurred by memory – of the palazzo’s architecture.

Winter
at Palazzo Fortuny – Romaine Brooks – Paintings, Drawings, Photographs. With
this exhibition, the first ever in Italy to be dedicated to the American artist
Romaine Brooks, we discover the non-conformist, refined and cosmopolitan community
that animated the most sophisticated cultural circles of the Belle Epoque in
Paris, Capri and Venice: Jean Cocteau, Paul Morand, Luisa Casati, Ida
Rubinstein and Gabriele d’Annunzio are just some of the characters who were
privileged to be immortalized by the artist, famous for her palette of
moonlight tones.

Winter
at Palazzo Fortuny – Romaine Brooks – Paintings, Drawings, Photographs.Romaine Brooks was born in Rome in 1874 to
American parents and married to pianist John Ellington Brooks, Beatrice Romaine
Goddard was one of the most interesting figures of the artistic scene of the
Twenties. Romantically linked to the writer Nathalie Clifford Barney and,
simultaneously, to the dancer Ida Rubinstein – her model for many paintings -–
the American artist also had an intense relationship with d’Annunzio, whom she
immortalized in two famous portraits.

Winter
at Palazzo Fortuny – Romaine Brooks – Paintings, Drawings, Photographs.Romaine Brooks was initially
influenced by the painting of Whistler, she soon found her unmistakable
signature style, one marked by an infinite variety of greys and old pinks and
an uncanny ability to capture the soul of her subjects. However, it is the
drawings that are the deepest mirror of her tragic and lonely soul. Charged
with a suffering poetry, emotion and mystery, irony and pessimism, these
elements blend in the taut line devoid of any decorative frills that almost
cuts into the paper without hesitation or second thoughts; they accompany us
with modesty and apparent detachment through the meanders of an inner world,
constantly poised between light and darkness.

Winter
at Palazzo Fortuny – Romaine Brooks - Paintings, Drawings, Photographs.Curated by Jerome Merceron on
the basis of a project by Daniela Ferretti, the exhibition arises from the
felicitous meeting with Lucile Audouy, a passionate and feisty collector in
Paris, who has generously loaned a very important group of works for the
exhibition in Venice, many of which never before seen in public.

Winter
at Palazzo Fortuny – Ida Barbarigo – Herms and Saturns. The descendant of an
illustrious family of artists, present in Venice for more than three centuries,
Ida Barbarigo presents a selection of works from two series made over two
decades, between 1980 and the end of the 1990s, at Palazzo Fortuny, in an
exhibition curated by Daniela Ferretti.

Winter
at Palazzo Fortuny – Ida Barbarigo – Herms and Saturns.Born in Venice in 1920, her mother, Livia Tivoli, was a
painter and poet, her father, the painter Guido Cadorin. Ida continues the
humanist tradition of a family in which sculptors, architects, painters,
scholars and writers have succeeded each other for centuries. In 1949, she
married Zoran Music with whom she shared the passion for art. She lives and
works in Venice.

Above.
Ida Barbarigo – Self-portrait – 1981 – oil on canvas.

Winter
at Palazzo Fortuny – Ida Barbarigo – Herms and Saturns.The Herms and Saturns are the enigmatic
witnesses of a complex development undertaken by the artist through painting.
The canvas, colors, acids, brushes; punches are simple tools through which her
vision takes shape, revealing itself in the material nature of the work.
Seductive and enigmatic, with simplicity Ida loves to recount her constant and
passionate commitment to painting, as emerges perfectly in the splendid essay
by Luca Massimo Barbero published in the exhibition catalogue.

Monday, January 25, 2016

New York: ABC Kitchen - Portobello Burger. Having become a Vegetarian, sometimes I crave a good hamburger, though today, the thought of a meat burger just
makes me shudder. Therefore, it was with great satisfaction that at MichelinStar Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s ABC
Kitchen I discovered the Portobello Burger which thoroughly satisfied my craving
for a good burger.

Union Square
Farmer’s Market: Bulich Mushroom. The Bulich family
has been growing mushrooms overlooking the Hudson River in the Catskill, NY for
three generations. Their only retail market point is the Union Square Farmer's Market
where you can find the great variety of ‘shrooms they cultivate; Portobellos, Criminis, Shitake,
white Buttons and Oysters which are all picked and sold within 24 hours in
plain brown paper bags. The big fat Portobellos are perfect for burgers and can also be used for Michelle Bulich's pizza base.